Uncle Bernac eBook

away. With a supreme effort he staggered to
his feet, the three of us hanging on to him like hounds
on to a bear. Then, with a shout of rage and
despair which thundered through the whole castle,
his knees gave way under him, and he fell in a huge
inert heap upon the floor, his black beard bristling
up towards the ceiling. We all stood panting
round, ready to spring upon him if he should move;
but it was over. He was dead.

Savary, deadly pale, was leaning with his hand to
his side against the table. It was not for nothing
that those mighty arms had been thrown round him.

‘I feel as if I had been hugged by a bear,’
said he. ’Well, there is one dangerous
man the less in France, and the Emperor has lost one
of his enemies. And yet he was a brave man too!’

‘What a soldier he would have made!’ said
Gerard thoughtfully. ’What a quartermaster
for the Hussars of Bercheny! He must have been
a very foolish person to set his will against that
of the Emperor.’

I had seated myself, sick and dazed, upon the settee,
for scenes of bloodshed were new to me then, and this
one had been enough to shock the most hardened.
Savary gave us all a little cognac from his flask,
and then tearing down one of the curtains he laid
it over the terrible figure of my Uncle Bernac.

‘We can do nothing here,’ said he.
’I must get back and report to the Emperor
as soon as possible. But all these papers of
Bernac’s must be seized, for many of them bear
upon this and other conspiracies.’ As he
spoke he gathered together a number of documents which
were scattered about the table—­among the
others a letter which lay before him upon the desk,
and which he had apparently just finished at the time
of Toussac’s irruption.

‘Hullo, what’s this?’ said Savary,
glancing over it. ’I fancy that our friend
Bernac was a dangerous man also. “My dear
Catulle—­I beg of you to send me by the
very first mail another phial of the same tasteless
essence which you sent three years ago. I mean
the almond decoction which leaves no traces.
I have particular reasons for wanting it in the course
of next week, so I implore you not to delay.
You may rely upon my interest with the Emperor whenever
you have occasion to demand it."’

‘Addressed to a chemist in Amiens,’ said
Savary, turning over the letter. ’A poisoner
then, on the top of his other virtues. I wonder
for whom this essence of almonds which leaves no trace
was intended.’

‘I wonder,’ said I.

After all, he was my uncle, and he was dead, so why
should I say further?

CHAPTER XVII

THE END

General Savary rode straight to Pont de Briques to
report to the Emperor, while Gerard returned with
me to my lodgings to share a bottle of wine.
I had expected to find my Cousin Sibylle there, but
to my surprise there was no sign of her, nor had she
left any word to tell us whither she had gone.